I was working and traveling in India in 2011 and no one there could afford an iPhone. They were several times the price they were here. Surprisingly everyone there was still using Blackberries and Android hadn't really caught on at all. I don't know how much has changed since then but the iPhone simply had no presence in India anywhere I went.

Michael, I agree with you. I have family in Brazil. Everyone wants an iPhone there but nobody can afford one. It might behoove Apple to release a slightly updated version of the 3Gs to complete their lineup, especially in emerging markets. The people I know who own iPhones in Brazil purchased them unlocked on Amazon or Ebay and payed for the shipping to Brazil, because the cost of an iPhone in Brazil is 4-5 times the price of one here. A 3Gs still runs ok (a little slow, but not too bad) with iOS6, but no telling for how long. Keeping a low-end version around in the US may dilute sales of the flagship i5, however. It would have to be different enough to merit the price differential.

Related - You might also want to consider your supporting a company that has yet to focus it massive wealth on helping our country be more productive (and help people get back to needed work).

Oh I love what Apple does for pushing the stogy PC industry to innovate; the marvelous "i" device that enhance our experience of consuming mostly (watching, reading, etc) content. But Jobs specifically refused to engage Business IT and refused to include pen or fine digitization and therefore Apple has no focus on making devices for productivity. No surprise they have negligible Business marketshare. If they don't fix this I believe it will be their downfall over time.

Lastly, another very concerning focus is Apple's focus on corralling the availability of content and other behavior counter to our interests for an expanding communications networks and innovation in usefulness of technology. Just look into their activity, licensing of IP, unreasonable litigiousness, and corralling content - this IS NOT in your and my interest - see The Master Switch.

We are a family with equal distribution of iPhones and Androids. The battery life when using BOTH are terrible. But the iPhones are always running out when needed or forever waiting for a charge. Gd forbid they forget to charge overnight.The Samsungs each have one extra battery $19 and never run out.

Actually i products are regularly more than twice the price. We just upgraded one 4 to a 5. The 4 WAS twice the price with the same storage. The 5 was $500 WITH the provider discount (the base model was $199). My Galaxy was $199 plus $12 micro SD to match the 5s storage. And I haven't "needed" to upgrade to the Galaxy III so I've saved 3x.

3 months ago, I replaced my Motorola/Android phone with an iPhone5. I love it! I especially like Apple's attention to detail. I also like NOT having to restart it once or twice a day in order to reliably make/receive calls. I can't think of any feature of the iPhone5 that doesn't work better than the Mot. My wife and daughter also have iphone5s now and we message sending pictures usually several times a day. We use facetime. We use Find Friends. We love the iPhones and would not downgrade to Android now. Every night we I put the phone on the charger, it shows around 60% left. The Mot quite often would go dead mid evening. We love our iPhone5s!

I prefer the iPhone to alternatives but I still think Apple might benefit from a cheaper model aimed at emerging markets, where there's the most potential for growth and where iOS has been relatively less successful. That's not to dismiss the significance of iOS's shrinking domestic market share--but when I think about how cheaper phones could help, I think more about the international scene than I do North America.

I'll have to disagree - they will not always have more apps. Who wants to design apps for 14% of the marketplace? There's a reason software developers rarely make OSx ports - the market is too small.

I have some iDevices of my own, but I won't buy any more. They are overpriced and overhyped. iOS had a great usability lead at first, but just like their hardware, they have become outdated. Android is almost as easy to use for novices as iOS is. Once they are close to the same, most people will start to re-evaluate why they are paying 2x for a phone that does half as much.

It could be argued that all of these new devices coming from other manufacturers are simply attempts to slap a new face on the same product. I grow weary of the ads touting new features that are only incrementally newer than the old ones from 2 months ago. I'm not abandoning a 2-year contract to get an upgrade without a darn good reason. If Apple came out with a new phone every 2 years it would suit me just fine.

I just gave my old 3GS to my brother in-law when I upgraded to the 5. After wiping it clean and re-loading the OS, it was like a new phone. He was happy, a 2-year-old phone got a new lease on life, and I was able to pass it on with a clean conscience, that it didn't end up in a landfill.

I'm not saying Apple is the greatest, or that they do everything perfectly - I know of no company that does. In this particular case, however, Apple doesn't need to compete with anyone else to earn my business. I have been pleased, for the most part, with their product, and I have no interest in jumping from one product to another just because it's "new". Sure, there are things they could do to refine it, such as a removable battery and maybe a memory slot, but even if they came out with 12 different models in a year, I would still only just buy one. Call me old-fashioned, but in this world where everything must be "NEW!", I find the almost-new to be just as good in most cases.

When you consider how much it costs to develop a new product, coupled with the high cost of marketing that product to garner consumer attention, I would guess that Apple is saving millions for every new product they are not bringing to market. The bean counter in me says they would be wise to redirect that money to other, more important things, like R&D for products nobody has ever seen before, and I would personally prefer they did that than waste their time and mine on another copycat product that I'm not going to buy anyway.

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